When a company has bank dues that almost equal their assets what do you expect?’’ says Bhrigunath, a fitter at a Parasrampuria plant at Alwar for 12 years.Their education may be meagre, but Parasrampuria workers are acutely aware why their company is in the doldrums. ‘‘There is a lot of unemployment in a place like Alwar and the group is taking advantage of that,’’ says worker Nihal Singh. ‘‘We have read about how the owners have not been able to pay back their heavy bank loans. Now, we are the people paying heavily for that,’’ says Singh.From the outside, everything seems normal in the cluster of textile plants set up by the Parasrampurias in Alwar district, Rajasthan. But the workers know what’s going wrong. The 28-acre plant manufacturing terry towels was the first to come up in the Khushkhera industrial area. However, the plant never managed to touch optimum production levels. Worse, the company had acquired an adjoining 25-acre plot to set up a velvet upholstery plant. But all they have to show today for it is a half-constructed factory, another abandoned Parasrampuria project.The group has two more units in the adjoining Bhiwadi industrial area, one for manufacturing synthetic yarn and the other for texturising the finished product. R.K. Joshi, manager of the towel unit, frankly tells you that the actual plant to be fitted in the upholstery unit has been lying in the customs warehouse for over three years. There doesn’t seem to be any immediate plans to install it in the Khushkhera industrial area. ‘‘Even workers nowadays are quite discerning and have read about the huge burden of bank loans of the company. When the company is facing financial problems it is difficult to hold skilled workers back,” says Joshi.He says that while there were 400 workers on their rolls, their plant would be viable if there were at least 40 looms working. ‘‘This plant has a capacity of 100 looms but only 18 looms work. All expansion plans have been put on hold because of the company’s financial distress.’’
